Dear Friends and Allies,
Warm summer greetings. I wanted to share with you the good news that my book, "Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism," has just been published, at last.
Inspired by my father Mahfoud Bennoune's work in Algeria, it tells the stories of progressive people (journalists, artists, women's rights activists, etc...) who have risked everything to stand up to extremism and terror - stories rarely heard in the West. For the book, I interviewed nearly 300 people of Muslim heritage from almost 30 countries - from Afghanistan to Mali. Thank you so much to all of you for your support with this project during the writing and research. Now, I am writing to ask for your support and advice in spreading the word about the book any way you can.
I would be most honored if you might consider reading "Your Fatwa", giving the book to friends, sharing the link with any friends, family, colleagues, bookstores, websites, listservs and libraries near you. If you do modern things involving social media (unlike this dinosaur), please feel free to share that way too. (If you do forward this email, please don't send my Email address along with it... thanks.) If you have ideas about places where I could give talks or readings, or booksignings, that would be great too. Whether or not the book is translated into other languages will depend on how well it does in English, so any and all support greatly appreciated. If you have time to read the book, and happen to like it, please consider writing a review on the amazon or barnes and noble sites - or "liking" the book on their sites.
You can also visit www.karimabennoune.com to see additional material not in the book in case you are interested.
Once I get through the book tour, I hope that I will get to catch up with you all. I have missed friends and colleagues during all this wandering and writing - though it has been the most amazing adventure - like three years of studying in the university of the world.... Thank you so much for any ideas you have on getting the word out - this is a rare opportunity for our perspectives to be heard, but I know you are all very busy.
warm wishes and thanks, karima
